Moderna (MRNA) shares surged Thursday after the drugmaker posted must stronger-than-expected fourth quarter earnings, while boosting its full-year sales forecast for Covid vaccine sales, and unveiled a new $3 billion share repurchase plan.
Moderna posted diluted GAAP earnings of $11.29 per share for the three months ending in December, up from a loss of 69 cents per share loss for the same period last year and well ahead of the Street consensus forecast of $9.90 per share. Group revenues also topped analysts' estimates, coming in at $7.21 billion.
Looking into the 2022 calendar year, Moderna said it sees sales of its mRNA-1273 coronavirus vaccine -- Spikevax -- in the region of $19 billion, with additional signed options of approximately $3 billion. Orders have also been confirmed for 2023 from Canada, the United Kingdom and Taiwan, the company said.
"Spikevax is now approved in more than 70 countries around the world protecting hundreds of millions of people and real-world evidence from multiple independent studies has confirmed its strong effectiveness," said CEO Stéphane Bancel.
"Moderna has experienced exponential growth and we have more than doubled the size of our team over the last year with a global team of 3,000," he added. "We are entering 2022 with a remarkable team and strategic priorities to continue advancing mRNA vaccines and therapeutics to impact human health."
Moderna shares were marked 12.3% higher in early afternoon trading Thursday to change hands at $152.40 each, a move that would still leave the stock with a six-month decline to around 61%.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration gave full and final approval to the drugmaker's 'Spikevax' Covid vaccine or patients 18 and older in late January.
The FDA's first Emergency Use Authorization ruling came in December of 2020. Since then, more than 204 million doses of the messenger-RNA based vaccine have been distributed in the United States, according to figures from Statista, with another 316 million coming from the Comiranty vaccine produced by Pfizer (PFE) and its German partner BioNtech (BNTX).
Moderna also said late last year that its developing seasonal flu vaccine showed promising data from a recent early stage trial while showing no significant side-effects. A phase 2 study is now fully-enrolled, Moderna said, with plans for a phase 3 study also underway.
The early data, however, appears to match that of rival Novavax NVAX, which published updated details from a phase 3 study of its NanoFlu vaccine in September, as well as the Fluzone HD offering from France-based Sanofi SNY.
